Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-710

The Four Seas Hall disciples as well as the rest of Xu Miaoran's group were all confused by Tang Jie's words. Only Xu Miaoran was smiling.

"Tang Jie, what's going on here?" Peng Yaolong sternly asked. "Did you design some sort of trap for that fiend granny and have her run into it?"

Tang Jie nodded. "It's nothing, really, just that the teleportation formation is in a very dangerous place, and you have to follow the rules to be safe. If one doesn't know the rules and breaks them…"

"What will happen?"

"Nothing much. A fiend will show up and cause trouble for you."

"'A fiend'? How strong of a fiend?" everyone asked in unison.

This time, Xu Miaoran answered, saying in a soft voice so that outsiders couldn't hear, "Peak Divine Division."

Hiss! Everyone gasped.

After a momentary pause, Bei Canghan and Cai Junyang both started laughing. "Great work!"

Nobody would have expected such a fierce creature to be on the road leading to the Blood River Domain. Sang Hongmei had essentially killed herself by willingly throwing herself into the net.

Wei Tianchong sighed in relief. "I knew it. Tang Jie, you're not that kind of person. Why didn't you say it earlier? We could have avoided all the misunderstanding."

"If I had said it earlier, would you have been able to put on such a good act? What if she managed to see through one of you?"

Bei Canghan said with a smile, "Tang Jie, you're really something else. Even when you're not here, you managed to kill a chief with your words. Formidable, formidable. But, Lady Xu, since you knew that there was a great fiend there, why didn't you try and lure her over earlier?"

Tang Jie whispered, "You can't blame her for this. It involves a big secret that can't be divulged to others. Moreover, that fiend has its own restrictions, so the plan isn't guaranteed to work…"

While the Vermillion Bird was a powerful fiend, the location of the Martial Lord's hidden realm was a secret, and if Xu Miaoran wanted to lure Sang Hongmei to the valley, she had to first guarantee that its location wouldn't be revealed. In normal circumstances, it was very difficult for her to force Sang Hongmei to make that sort of oath. It was only when Sang Hongmei was at a dead end that she had agreed to it. Moreover, the Vermillion Bird was limited to the valley. While Sang Hongmei could never be a match for the Vermillion Bird, if she managed to escape the valley, the Vermillion Bird wouldn't be able to give chase. Considering Sang Hongmei's strength and the caution she was bound to show upon entering a strange environment, even if there was an entire realm of difference between them, it was impossible to say for sure that she couldn't escape.

But Tang Jie's Daos of Karma and Fate had resolved this problem.

He had used Fate to pluck one of the threads of Sang Hongmei's heart, so when she saw all those rare flowers in the valley, she cast aside all her vigilance and allowed her greed to guide her deeper in.

In such a situation, without some escaping spell art like Duplication, if the Vermillion Bird still let her escape, then she couldn't call herself the guardian of the valley anymore.

Interestingly, the extremely long distance should have made it impossible for Tang Jie to try something like this on Sang Hongmei, but Sang Hongmei's lack of resistance had let him succeed—the light sent into Sang Hongmei's head contained both the location of the teleportation formation and also a Seed of Karma.

In the end, it was the greed within her that had caused her to kill herself.

Of course, Tang Jie wasn't going into the details, only giving a general summary.

As they were talking, the Four Seas Hall disciples shouted, "Tang Jie, you dare to scheme against a person of my Horizon Ocean Pavilion? Do you know who the Blood Fairy is?"

Tang Jie coldly replied, "Of course I know. Blood Fairy Sang Hongmei is one of the Eight Ocean Rakshasas and the disciple of the Jewel Celestial Sovereign. Isn't that exactly why she can be so bold and audacious? Even if my woman and brothers won this battle, I'm sure that Sang Hongmei still wouldn't be killed over this matter, no?"

Everyone froze.

Yes, everyone had been so focused on the fight that they had forgotten about how the aftermath was going to be handled.

Just like how Sang Hongmei didn't dare to kill Xu Miaoran, Xu Miaoran also couldn't casually kill Sang Hongmei.

One could kill in battle with the excuse that there was no room to hold back, but killing after the outcome had been decided was far more serious.

Sang Hongmei had committed a crime. She could be punished for this, demoted for this, even imprisoned, but she couldn't die!

It was because she was the disciple of the Jewel Celestial Sovereign, one of the chiefs of Horizon Ocean Pavilion. Her strength was prodigious, her status extraordinary. No matter what crime she had committed, so long as it wasn't killing her master or betraying her sect, she wouldn't die!

Was this unfair?

Yes.

But this was reality!

This world had rules, but it also had hierarchy!

All rules were established with respect to one's place on the hierarchy, and while Sang Hongmei's status wasn't at the point where she could ignore the laws, it did make her immune to the death penalty.

This was why Sang Hongmei had been so confident.

But while Xu Miaoran couldn't kill her, Tang Jie could.

He looked at the Four Seas Hall disciples and said, "In truth, I could refuse to say anything. With you guys as my witness, I have every right to say that I simply told Sang Hongmei the location of the teleportation formation. As for why she didn't come back? I could just say I don't know, that maybe she took a liking to the Blood River Domain. But I don't want to do this. I want the Jewel Sovereign to know that it was me who killed her disciple. I want Horizon Ocean Pavilion to know that I killed one of their chiefs. I want you people to know that even when I'm not here, I can still throw the entire Rosecloud Domain into chaos. Even if I can't reach here, I can still kill whoever I want to kill. So, go back and tell the Jewel Celestial Sovereign that if she doesn't like it, she can wait for me to come back and fight me!"

The Four Seas Hall disciples were dumbfounded, while Cai Junyang's group all cheered Tang Jie. As for Xu Miaoran, she gazed admiringly at him, and if this hadn't been a projection, she would have already hugged him and given him a big kiss.

Tang Jie's eyes turned fierce. "Hurry up and scram already!"

These words were like a thunderclap, and the Four Seas Hall disciples took fright and ran off.

Although this Tang Jie was just a projection, they truly had been scared silly by it.

Xu Miaoran's several dozen Celestial Heart True Persons hadn't been able to kill Sang Hongmei, but he had killed her with a few words, so it wasn't strange to be terrified by such a being.

Once those people had gone, Tang Jie's body suddenly shivered, and his figure became unstable.

"Ah, I'm finally reaching my limit," Tang Jie sighed.

"Tang Jie!" Xu Miaoran shouted.

They had finally gotten a chance to speak to each other, but it was already over?

"Don't panic. Listen to me," Tang Jie said. "Starting from now, I will have to wait half a year to a year until I can contact you again. You ask Little Three for the specifics. In addition, Sang Hongmei is dead for sure, but I don't know how many Immortal plants she managed to pick before that. You can go ahead and take them. Consider this as a contribution Sang Hongmei made using her life."

When Tang Jie wasn't around, there was no way to gather the Immortal plants in the Martial Lord's hidden realm. Even the Vermillion Bird couldn't touch them.

Thanks to Sang Hongmei, Xu Miaoran could enter the valley and take what had already been gathered. Since they had been picked, they could no longer continue to grow, so they were not under the protection of the Vermillion Bird.

This was Tang Jie's method of providing some resources to Xu Miaoran. After all, not all resources could be bought with money.

Xu Miaoran vigorously nodded, her eyes wet with tears.

The flickering intensified.

Tang Jie continued. "A third thing. Miaoran, I leave my brothers to you. It's thanks to you that they were able to reach Celestial Heart, but they will still need your support in the future."

"Tang Jie, what are you saying?" Cai Junyang grumbled. "We can earn our own spirit coins. We don't need you for that. And I've already comprehended Slaughter…"

"I've killed two Divine Divisions," Tang Jie coolly said.

"What?" Everyone was dumbfounded.

Cai Junyang was rendered speechless, dumbly saying, "D-Divine Division? On your own?"

"On my own," Tang Jie firmly said.

It was a dizzying statement.

Divine Division!

A peak Soul Transformation already had them on their knees, but Tang Jie had managed to kill a Divine Division by himself?

It was no wonder he had decided to kill Sang Hongmei without hesitation, and even dared to challenge the Jewel Celestial Sovereign.

Because he wasn't afraid.

Tang Jie smiled. "So, try not to get left too far behind."

Tang Jie's image began to fade.

"Hey, hey, Tang Jie! Don't go yet! I still have something to say!" Wei Tianchong shouted. "The Wu couple…"

The fading image shuddered and came back into focus, looking at Wei Tianchong.

Wei Tianchong shouted, "They… passed away!"

Bang!

The projection disappeared.

Plush.

Tang Jie threw up blood, staining his desk red.

"Your Majesty!" The minor fiends down below jumped up in fright and rushed to his side.

"Withdraw!" Tang Jie roared.

This harsh rebuke had all the fiends retreating, tightly shutting the door behind them.

Tang Jie let out a long breath.

Three years of comprehending the Dao allowed Tang Jie to maintain a Fate connection without showing it. By placing the Fate Standard in his body, he could even work while maintaining the link. But he hadn't expected this surprise.

The news had shaken Tang Jie so badly that he had suffered a backlash, but compared to the bodily harm, the mental sorrow was far greater.

The Wu couple had passed away!

Tang Jie had cultivated for about forty years now.

The Wu couple should have been about one hundred years old.

Although they had life-extending pills, these medicines couldn't confer Immortality. It was already an achievement for the two to live to this age.

Tang Jie couldn't help but criticize himself for failing to fulfill his filial duty as the adopted son.

The voices and smiling faces of the old couple rose up in his mind as he muttered, "The child wishes to offer care, but the parents can't wait! Alas! I'm such a fool! Ending up in this situation for such a small thing. Now, I can't go back home, couldn't even send them off… Maybe… maybe they even wanted to see me one last time, but couldn't…"

Tang Jie became mired in regret and self-blame.

Tang Jie's guess was right. Before passing on, the Wu couple truly had wanted to see Tang Jie.

Even at the moment of their deaths, they had wanted to hold Tang Jie's hand and ask if he was doing well, but in the end, this wish had gone unfulfilled.

At their side were Wu Xing, Wei Tianchong, and Zheng Shufeng, but there had been no sign of their "filial son"…